Do you vote for mobsters?

If your neighbour came over to your house with a gun, and had a cage in his basement, and said “I’m not making any money right now so hand over your wallet or else I’m locking you in the cage in my basement; and, if you resist me putting you into the cage, I’ll shoot you dead”, would you not consider your neighbour to be a criminal?

If he said that he intended to win a lot of praise and admiration by giving your money to “the children”, or “the poor”, or “the needy”, would you not still consider your neighbour to be a criminal?

If everyone on your block elected him their representative, and he demanded money on all of their behalves, threatening to put you in his holding cell, would they not have voted for a criminal?

If he and the rest of your neighbours formed a private association that went door to door demanding wallets and threatening to put people in their basement cells, would they not be an organized criminal gang?

If they registered their association as a political party and 42% of voters elected them to assume the office of government, and if they then passed laws pursuant to which you must hand over your wallet or else be locked in a prison, would the fact that they were elected change the morality of what they did to people?

Would their having been elected change their identity, such that they were no longer mobsters?

Would their passing of laws that exempted them from criminal prosecution change the morality of what they were doing? Would it change their identity, such that they were no longer mobsters?

Voting for a party that makes laws to redistribute wealth is voting for The Mob. Those who vote for for such parties are morally culpable and, arguably should be legally culpable.

Such voters are pretending that, because they voted for someone else to do their dirty work, they are not personally guilty of theft, extortion, and the like.

Such people apparently have not considered the fact that they are no different, in principle, than a person who pays a hitman or a money launderer.